On May 25, 1985, seventy-three South Korean students barged into the United States Information Services (USIS) library in Seoul and…
The Thai-tanic: Responding to the Asian Financial Crisis of 1997
Asian countries took a financial hit in 1997, resulting in a crisis that reverberated throughout the world. It began on…
Teaching the Foreign Service to Speak Foreign Languages
The Foreign Service Institute (FSI) is the primary training institution to prepare American diplomats to advance U.S. foreign affairs interests,…
Seek and Destroy – The Mine Ban Treaty
Signed in Ottawa, Canada on December 3, 1997, the Convention on the Prohibition of the Use, Stockpiling, Production and Transfer…
Observing the Fiftieth Anniversary of VJ-Day in Japan
How to commemorate an important anniversary of the country in which you’re posted when it marks a low point in…
Politics, Pinatubo and the Pentagon: The Closure of Subic Bay
The closure of Naval Base Subic Bay, the U.S. Navy’s massive ship-repair, supply, and rest and recreation facility in the…
The Inspector General — Rooting Out Fraud and Abuse in the State Department
With thousands of employees from dozens of countries spread across the globe, the U.S. Department of State sometimes falls victim…
The Seychelles – Gangsta’s Paradise
A country of white sand beaches and palm trees, the Seychelles is an exotic tourist destination. It also happens to…
Exit Somoza, Enter the Sandinistas
As violence and protests against Nicaragua’s despotic government increased, the U.S. and the Organization of American States (OAS) tried to…
An Axe Murder Triggers a Standoff in Korea’s DMZ, 1976
The United States and North Korea have not had the best relations, to put it mildly. Even in a place…